A Walk In the Park
by oldscout1011
Summary: Duncan MacLeod visits Sunnydale in search of a friend and meets the girl who hangs out in cemetaries.


Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, this is just for fun.  
  
A Walk In the Park.  
  
by OldScout  
  
Duncan MacLeod walked out of the darkened alley. It had taken him the better part of two hours to thoroughly investigate the site and the setting sun hadn't helped. He was satisfied with what he'd found, but his questions still weren't answered. From the damage he'd found he could tell at least one quickening had taken place recently, perhaps two. There were scorch marks on top of each other and two distinct patterns. He'd half expected to find a quickening site, but not two. That meant a third immortal, but whom?  
  
After looking up and down the busy street to see if anybody had noticed him coming out of the alley, Duncan pulled his long black trench coat a little tighter to block the chill that had come with the mid December evening.  
  
"Now what?" he thought as he watched the traffic pass. There couldn't have been a second immortal following Ron, he would have known, he would have said something. No, if there was another, he probably lived here and took advantage of the winner while he was still weak from the fight and the quickening.  
  
"A coward or a cheater." Duncan mumbled as he looked around his current corner of the suburb. He'd stay here and find the immortal, and find out exactly what happened to his friend. But first, back to his hotel.  
  
In the newly arrived evening he tried to get his bearings. The shopping district that his hotel was in should be straight in front of him, just on the other side of that large park across the street.  
  
Soon after entering the darkened park Duncan stopped and looked around. Something was off. This wasn't a park, it was a graveyard. He smiled; at least he'd be safe from any annoying challenges here and continued his walk which had turned into a stroll. In his centuries, he'd learned to enjoy the peace and relative safety a cemetery could afford him.  
  
Peanut butter. Duncan stopped and sniffed again, he definitely smelled peanut butter coming from up ahead. He continued a little bit more cautiously but still not too concerned , after all this was holy ground.  
  
Up ahead, a figure sat on the base of large monument, legs swinging back and forth a few inches above the ground. As he approached he realized it was a young woman and she appeared to be eating, if his nose interpreted correctly, a peanut butter sandwich.  
  
She watched him approach in the moon light and took anther bite of her sandwich. "Why is a young woman sitting alone in the dark in a cemetery having a picnic?" Duncan thought as he walked up to her. He put on his most charming smile.  
  
"Evening," He said, stopping in front of her. "Can you tell me if this is the way back to the business district?" He knew it was, but needed something to say.  
  
The girl put the unfinished sandwich in a plastic sandwich bag and laid it next to her then looked him up and down. Continuing to swing her legs, she said. "You're not quite human are you?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"You," she repeated. "Aren't quite human. Live in Sunnydale long enough and you learn to sense these things."  
  
Now Duncan knew why the girl was having a picnic by herself in the middle of a cemetery on a chilly December night, she was nuts. "I don't know what you're talking about."  
  
She smiled and leaned back to stretch. "Of course you wouldn't admit it." She said. "Would you at least tell me why you're carrying a sword?" the tone of her voice made it sound like a rhetorical question.  
  
"Hey, I just asked for directions." This was getting a little strange. "I think my hotel is that way." He pointed the way he'd been headed. "I think I'll just get going."  
  
A silhouette detached itself from the shadows near were Duncan was pointing. In a blurred motion, the girl pulled a one handed crossbow from behind her back and fired at the figure. The thing paused for a second then faded.  
  
Duncan was too stunned to say anything. Even the "What the hell was that!!?" that was screaming in the front of his mind remained un-said.  
  
"The way I see it," The girl said as she reloaded her small crossbow. "Normally there are two reasons why people carry swords around cemeteries in Sunnydale. They are either friends looking to hang out with me, or they're just looking for me."  
  
"Lady, I have no idea what you're talking about, or what the hell is going on here. I'm just looking for my hotel." Duncan took a step toward his destination. He figured once he was beyond this girl he'd open his jacket and loosen his sword. What ever or who ever she fired at might still be out there.  
  
"That was until last week." The girl went on cheerily. "I happened on a couple of guys with swords who were all about fighting each other. They actually wanted nothing to do with me."  
  
Duncan stopped in mid step and looked back at the girl. Her feet were still slowly kicking back and forth. "What happened?"  
  
"Can you believe it?" She said in the same cheery tone. "Two guys, who also weren't quite human, come to my town to fight their little duel without so much as a by-your-leave?" She said the last part with a British accent.  
  
It sounded like she was mocking someone. Perhaps him. But it still made him smile.  
  
"Well, perhaps they didn't know they needed to check in with you first?" Somehow the comment came out without the sarcastic tone he'd intended.  
  
"You know, that's exactly what the survivor told me, but he was way rudder about it."  
  
A chill ran down Duncan's spine. Something about this girl's demeanor had changed. There was suddenly an edge to her voice and perhaps a veiled threat. "What, may I ask, happened that night?"  
  
The young woman retreived her sandwich and took another bite. "Well, it was the middle of the day and in an alley." She said after swallowing, and appeared to think for a second. "You know, that was weird in itself, not being at night and in a cemetery and all."  
  
"Of course." Duncan agreed as if her line of reasoning actually made sense. He waited for the girl to finish the last of her sandwich.  
  
"So any way." She continued. "I was walking down the street and heard this fight. You know swords clanging, men grunting, the whole nine yards. So I went to investigate and found these two guys fighting."  
  
"What did they look like?"  
  
She reached behind her back, pulled a duffle bag forward and opened it. "This one," she removed an old broad sword. Duncan had cringed a little, half expecting her to be pulling heads out of the bag. "Was tall, taller then you, and heavy; with a big ugly beard. Oh, and he stank, he smelled like hadn't taken a bath in weeks." She laid the weapon across her lap. "And this one," She removed an old katana with a black handle from the bag. "He was a little shorter then you, thin and he had short brown hair with some gray. Kind of cute for an older guy."  
  
"Can I see that?" Duncan nodded toward the katana. "I think I knew him."  
  
She tossed him the sword.  
  
"His name was Ron Phelps."  
  
"What about this one?" She held up the broad sword.  
  
"I knew him as Gregor." Duncan said and then added. "By reputation only."  
  
"Not much of a reputation I bet.?"  
  
"What happened next?"  
  
"Well, I had these two strangers engaged in a pretty vicious sword fight in my town, what was I suppose to do? I watched. They seemed pretty evenly matched but I figured the big guy would probably win. Then the big guy stepped into a thrust and," she pointed to the katana. "Your friend ran that sword all the way through him and out the other side."  
  
"Ron won?"  
  
"It seemed that way, but I suspected something was up, I've seen hard to kill creatures fight this way before. Take some pretty wicked damage, just to get close enough to inflict a lethal blow."  
  
Duncan hung his head, he knew what was coming next, and Ron after all this time still fought and thought like a mortal.  
  
"Gregor grabbed your friend's hand to hold him in place, and said something like 'There can be only one' then swung at his neck." The girl shook her head. "And it was just gross, I hate decapitations, they just give me the wiggins." She looked back at him. "I'm guessing you know what happened next, with the lightening and all."  
  
"I'd guess you're right. But what happened to Gregor?"  
  
"Well he pulled the sword out of himself before the lightening storm then afterward is when he got rude with me."  
  
"He got rude?" Immortals hated audiences for the kill and quickening especially a mortal dingy California blonde.  
  
"You know growling at me what a good day he was having getting a head and some tail." She grimaced. "How rude and just gross, you know he was all stinky and covered with blood, plus just eewh."  
  
Duncan glared at her. How could such a petite thing be making fun of somebody threatening her like that?  
  
"You know," she continued. "It's not a good idea to get all rude and evil acting with me if you're not quite human and I know how to kill you."  
  
"You killed Gregor?" Duncan couldn't keep the disbelief out of his voice.  
  
In another blur, the girl snatched up her crossbow again and fired in a new direction. The smile that played across her lips made Duncan think that she hit whatever she was aiming at, but he never saw or heard anything.  
  
"You guys, aren't quite human, I sensed that pretty quick." She said. "You're thing is that you're, shall we say, durable." She waited a second as if expecting him to respond, which he didn't. "But you're really only as strong and fast as a normal human, aren't you?"  
  
"I guess." Duncan admitted. Really wondering who or perhaps what this girl was.  
  
"So yea, I killed the rude, stinky, evil, durable and not quite human guy. So, I recommend that you tell the others like you to keep your game out of my town, I have enough real evil to deal without having to deal with you're lot as well."  
  
Duncan really looked at her now. "Game?"  
  
She smiled back cheerily, "I haven't survived this long in this town without doing proper research, well at least having my friends do the research and telling what's the what." She then gestured at the sword he was still holding. "You can keep that as a reminder of your visit to this fine little piece of hell. Now I suggest you head back to your hotel, I don't think there are any more dusters near by."  
  
Duncan hesitated for a second, then stashed the sword under his coat. "Ah, thanks, I guess." And started to walk away. He stopped and looked back when heard a soft crunch. The girl was casually leaning back, looking up at the night sky and now eating an apple.  
  
This was definitely a weird town. 


End file.
